Fodder Question 2: Alfalfa seeds with a white coating, what's that?

[gtaus]

I haven't weighed before and after, but ~400 grams of dry wheat/rye feed my duckies for 2 days. A 50lbs bag (22Kg) would make 55 bins, enough for 110 days.
Maybe i should just feed them more greens and safe on pellets. There's enough room in my garage for a second fodder tower…

I have 10 hens, and I give them half a bin of fodder per day. If I give them more, it is frozen solid before they eat it all.

My chickens are actively laying eggs, so I always have layer feed available to them 24/7 because the commercial feed also has calcium and other good stuff for their egg laying. If that was not a concern, I think maybe they could survive on just eating fodder, but I don't know for sure. I use my fodder as a supplement to their layer feed, and not as a substitute. But obviously I could save lots of money if they only ate fodder (a 50 pound, $7.25 bag of barley makes about 250 pounds of fodder).

The fodder tower I built is so cheap that I figured it paid for itself in the first couple of batches of fodder. If I had more birds and/or need for more fodder, I'd build a second tower, or more, in a heartbeat.

 

[gtaus]

Found this recipe for Oat sprouts:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/sprouting/how-to-sprout-oat-groats/
It says » Soak up to 6 hours.« - Maybe we have soaked the Oats for too long?

I still have oats out in a bin in my garage. I think I'll have to dig some out and try another round of soaking the oat seeds for maybe 2 hours/4 hours/6 hours and my standard 12 hours. Good suggestion, maybe the oat seeds soaked too long and drowned.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have 10 hens, and I give them half a bin of fodder per day. If I give them more, it is frozen solid before they eat it all.

My chickens are actively laying eggs, so I always have layer feed available to them 24/7 because the commercial feed also has calcium and other good stuff for their egg laying. If that was not a concern, I think maybe they could survive on just eating fodder, but I don't know for sure. I use my fodder as a supplement to their layer feed, and not as a substitute. But obviously I could save lots of money if they only ate fodder (a 50 pound, $7.25 bag of barley makes about 250 pounds of fodder).

The fodder tower I built is so cheap that I figured it paid for itself in the first couple of batches of fodder. If I had more birds and/or need for more fodder, I'd build a second tower, or more, in a heartbeat.

I have 19 ducks and 5 drakes right now and get another 5 rescue "Ducknagers" tomorrow afternoon. They chow through a 50lbs bag of pellets within 8-9 days, depending on the weather. They have their pellets and water available 24x7 and i observe small groups of ducks walking into the house multiple times a day to grab a billfull of pellets and another billfull of Oyster-shells. If i can grow more fodder, i would give them multiple small portions over the day, maybe a full bin per day. Ducks eat much more greens than chickens if they can. And if foraging is good, they almost eat no pellets.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I still have oats out in a bin in my garage. I think I'll have to dig some out and try another round of soaking the oat seeds for maybe 2 hours/4 hours/6 hours and my standard 12 hours. Good suggestion, maybe the oat seeds soaked too long and drowned.

I start with 2 hours today...

 

[gtaus]

Ducks eat much more greens than chickens if they can. And if foraging is good, they almost eat no pellets.

Yeah, then I'd give them more fodder. As long as they like it, every bill full of fodder is saving you $$$$.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I will try the Alfalfa Sprouts this evening, after 10 days they look ready, but the resulting amount is disappointing:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

And it looks like the grown-up ducks love Alfafa fodder, their supper-bowl is almost empty.

 

[gtaus]

And it looks like the grown-up ducks love Alfafa fodder, their supper-bowl is almost empty.

Even though the alfalfa did not grow into fodder as well as hoped, it sure looks like the ducks ate it up. My oat fodder was not very successful in terms of growing into a nice lush green grass, but my chickens ate it all up just the same. Even the seeds that don't turn out to be good for fodder are usually still good to be used as feed in other ways. I have been mixing my oat seeds in with my chicken scratch, so it's all used.

 

[aart]

Mmmm...alfalfa sprouts are great in place of lettuce on sammichs and such.

I believe that max nutrition of grains is just after they sprout...or with very little green.
I feed my fodder at about day 5-6, before the leaves get too long/tall.
Long 'loose' leaves of grass(grains are grasses) can cause impaction in chicken crops, ducks are probably much more able to handle larger pieces of green vegetation.

 

[gtaus]

Long 'loose' leaves of grass(grains are grasses) can cause impaction in chicken crops, ducks are probably much more able to handle larger pieces of green vegetation.

This was a concern for me because my barley fodder is about 8 inches tall when I feed it to my chickens. However, I read the concern is when the grass is loose, like cut, and 8 inches tall. When I feed the 8 inch tall fodder to the chickens, they bite off smaller pieces of the grass blade which is still attached to the root mat. So it's more like eating tall grass out in the pasture. They bite pieces of the grass blade, working down to the root mat, then they tear the root mat apart and eat that too. So far, I have not seen any impaction in chicken crops, but it is something I look for just in case.